Measles used to be an alarming fear to most parents, infecting nearly all children before turning fifteen and killing around five hundred people per year. This all changed with the widespread availability of the measles vaccine, which was rolled out in 1963. The vaccine did a wonderful job eliminating cases of measles. In fact, measles has been considered “eliminated” in the United States since 2000. Unfortunately, there is a chance measles may resurface. President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has made the measles vaccines a political issue, when it previously was not.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., also known as RFK, has been a proponent of anti-vaccination conspiracy theories and misinformation for years. Under the guise of his “Make America Healthy Again” campaign, he has normalized the belief in blatantly false theories, such as vaccines causing autism or killing people. He often hides this by deflecting or being childish. During RFK’s confirmation hearing, he was asked by Senator Bill Cassidy if he was willing to say that vaccines don’t cause autism. His response was “if the data is there, I will absolutely do that.” This statement is absurd. The data not only is there, but has been there for years on end, proving his ignorance on the topic. RFK’s most recent statements on the measles vaccine have continued his pattern of spreading misinformation while refusing to openly say his beliefs.
RFK’s statement seemed to start off adhering to scientific research, as he admits the benefits of vaccines for both children who do receive them and those who can’t. Unfortunately, the statement swiftly takes a turn for the worse. RFK then claimed that 98 percent of measles deaths had been eliminated before the vaccine. This statement blatantly ignores that hundreds of people were dying yearly from measles before 1963. He also talks about how vitamin C can prevent disease. While this isn’t untrue, vitamin C is much, much less effective than a vaccine. “With such a polarizing issue, where the consequences are literally life and death, taking a middle of the road position doesn’t seem to actually do much,” said sophomore Ganesh Ramamurthi. Measles are a deadly disease that modern science has found a way to prevent. It is important that RFK understands that.
After this statement, RFK did still attack the measles vaccine. In one such attack, RFK said that “[the measles vaccine] does cause deaths every year. It causes — it causes all the illnesses that measles itself causes, encephalitis and blindness, et cetera.” What a strange thing to say, given it’s entirely incorrect. There are currently no deaths correlated to the measles vaccine in healthy people. In fact, researchers believe that this vaccine may have saved 154 million lives in the 50 years since its roll out. We are seeing the effects of RFK’s claims, as they are influencing many.
A measles outbreak is already happening in Texas, with 279 identified cases since January of this year and 36 hospitalizations. All but two of these cases have been in unvaccinated people, and tragically, one child has already died due to complications from measles. That child’s death, and the whole outbreak, was entirely preventable. It is the rampant misinformation perpetuated by people like RFK that have led to these measles cases. As less and less children are being vaccinated against measles yearly, these tragedies may become very frequent very soon.“We need to hold him to a higher level of accountability because he has a large public following and a role in government,” sophomore Nam Dang said. RFK’s anti-vaccine ideology has already started to affect real lives.
Vaccines are so important. They are a modern technology that have saved countless lives. It is, quite frankly, terrifying that someone with such an important government position has stood clearly against them. Hopefully, people will start to do more of their own research, and get their children vaccinated. After all, for so long, vaccines have prevented measles from rising in numbers again.
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